Valediction
by theleague-ofshadows
Summary: He told her that if she ever got the chance that even though he warned her never to try, that she should escape. She would have to try. She didn't know how she reached the ledge almost at the top, yet here she was. The exact place she had seen the vulture and then she looked at the other rock, the one that every man failed to catch. Bane/Talia


A/N: For Belle, who wanted a fic of them in the pit.

You're the best, enjoy this.

* * *

**Valediction**

written by theleague-ofshadows

* * *

A giant miserable tunnel. Sky bound and massive, it led all the way to the atmosphere and beyond, but it was too high. Too impossible to reach. No one would be at the top to pull you up. You had to climb on your own, hauling your weight up each stone.

The boy in the shadows rolled his eyes as yet another man seized the rope and allowed another inmate to wrap it around his waist. So he wished to climb? He probably had no doubts that he would reach the top, obviously, otherwise why would he try? Did some people actually enjoy the physical pain of the rope slicing through them as they fell? He thought the thick cord circling his body was his salvation?

No. There was no salvation. They climbed, they fell. That was always the cycle.

Most of them died. The men that yearned for the chance to reach the top were either young who were restless and arrogant or they were old with no other reason to live. The older ones never survived. The whip of the ropes as it reached its end was enough to split the spine. They were never strong enough to last.

The little boy, no older than a decade and a half looked up at the skies and watched as the man spit on both hands and started to climb eagerly. Though he scowled each time they tried, mostly due to the fact that they always gave him false hope, he couldn't deny the little piece of him that wanted to watch and just see if they would be the one.

Legends were spoken. The old man with the milky eyes often talked about the Pit spitting something back out. He often spoke of the rare occasion that a man would leave this place. Choose his fate and reach for it. He was told that sometimes, very scarce but still possible, they would reach salvation.

The man reaching higher, grasping the stone and using the muscles in his arms to pull himself up. The child watched, his expression indifferent. The rope was dangling, swinging around as the man made quick moves. He had passed the easy part, now he was going to have to be tactful.

The child lived without a proper name, one that was only whispered in the wind. The other inmates didn't know what to call him. He was a shadow, always lurking about and _watching_. He didn't feel the urge to rouse trouble but he kept his body fit and ready in case there was ever the day he would fight.

This prison was his home, he knew no other.

The young boy, not yet a man had already seen death. He lasted through the winter like a bear in hibernation. He had two meals a day and slept a good six hours each. He had routine. He had a normalcy.

So many days had passed and soon he had forgotten the reason that he was banished here. Irrelevant reason to forget. The days felt like months and soon it became enough to make a man go mad. Each one damned to this hell found his place, his crevice to either rule or be reigned over. The hierarchy of the Pit.

Barely remembering his parentage, he had no figure to model himself after. The faceless god these men groaned for was never there for him. Wasn't he important too? But then again, what could that deity do that he couldn't do himself? He sure as hell couldn't pull him from this prison.

It was created for a reason and a good one at that. Though the child knew that he was indeed, not a bad person, these other people _definitely_ were. And they deserved this hell.

That was what it was designed for. And that tunnel leading towards the skies was only a painful reminder of the impossibility of freedom. It was there to taunt them and most men, the wise ones, didn't reach out for a chance to become a potential "risen" one. No, in fact, they didn't hope at all.

That was what destroyed them in the end. Hope.

Only a child. A cub to the lion that had not yet found his roar. He inhaled the anticipation, the knowledge that time passed slower than a limp sloth. There was no such thing as heaven.

So to the shadows he became a partner. It was better to be ignored then to be pestered. He was not weak. He was not humble. The child in the pit was growing stronger and was nearly a man, yet even then he did not know of the light the men who had lived many years beyond this hell spoke of. He only knew the darkness.

The man was halfway to the top, his arms and legs so quick to move from each stone. Bane watched from his secluded position in the corner. The man was getting higher, higher than he had seen anyone go. This time it was different. Maybe he would be the one. The one he heard legends about.

The interest in the matter became stronger as he watched. The man climbed higher and higher, impossibly moving from each stone to the next with ease. He was going to make it; he was going to be-

Then he lost his footing.

Not being able to grab onto any part of the wall, the man fell backwards swinging his arms around as he tried to grip any part he could find. He was falling impossibly slow as the seconds went by like _hours_. The child held his breath, not a sound echoing off the prison walls until the rope yanked the man's body and the force of his mass being restrained as the rope tightened was painful just to watch. The men surrounding the part of the prison that was designed for observers cleared out as they muttered with disappointment.

The little lion watched the man being eased down from the rope, his body limp in the harness around his waist. Dead or alive, the child didn't know. His chest fell as he frowned. He was stupid to have thought that anyone could make the journey.

Turning around, he started to walk back to his cell. The disappointment of the day accomplished and now he was going to sleep. He didn't care that the sun was still out, soon it would set and the skies would be a rosy haze.

He then heard cries from another inmate. Rolling his eyes, he was sure another man wished to try and climb like the other, and know that _this_ time, he would be the one to rise. He had had enough of false hope.

But that wasn't the case as the inmate started to chant something

"A princess!" The old man shouted.

The child turned to look at the man, in his elder years, pointing his wrinkled finger at the sky and shouting "Goddess from above!" He shifted his gaze to the circular entrance from above and noticed that there were men surrounding the top.

The other inmates listened to the man's cries and started to look up as well. They became loud with shouts. Each one either a plea or a nasty remark. These men above wouldn't save them. Half of them knew that.

Then she appeared. The men dragged her by her elbow to the edge and wrapped the rope just under her legs and around her waist, and then she was starting to come down.

The child watched with horror. What were they doing? A female? A woman? The ice in his stomach was overbearing. How could they send a woman down here? There were too many evil people.

The woman was clothed in beautiful robes that cascaded down her body. A thick veil covering her head, leaving only her eyes to look wide-eyed out amongst the other prisoners.

The child gasped as the fire in him became prominent because he knew; he _knew _she wouldn't last a day. She would only become prey and that made him sick.

The woman reached the floor but the child did not see. He was already gone.

* * *

She did last longer than a day. In fact, she lasted months. The woman was with child, much to everyone's surprise, yet the doctor kept her so well protected that she didn't have to worry about the other inmates. A few of the better men in the Pit offered their alliance to the doctor and soon the woman was allowed to leave the cell for a few minutes each day under the protective watch of the tougher men in the prison.

The antagonists were present, they always were, but the woman did not fear them. Every now and then the child, now almost a year older, caught a glimpse of the woman, her stomach enormous with the child inside of her. She would deliver any day, he was sure.

Though he knew it unwise, he found something enchanting about the fact that life could be planted in the walls of this place. That a child would come any day and there would be _innocence_. He couldn't explain it, but he was intrigued.

The lion cub had found his roar in the winter that year. Fed up with being troubled, he finally retaliated brutally against an antagonist and he came out a winner. Then he earned a name, one that was spoken from the lips of the men around him instead of in the whispers of the wind.

Bane. Meaning the infliction of pain upon another. The child no longer small and unknown. Not even sixteen and he had already murdered plenty of men. The story of how he was damned became a popular story around the prison. The inmates began to fear him. Good. Better to be feared and powerful than loved and stepped on.

He took the name.

* * *

"Did you see it? Tiny bastard couldn't be larger than my fist."

Bane turned his head to stare at the brute of the Pit as he conversed with another member. What was he talking about? Tiny bastard?

"The whore didn't even make a noise throughout the night." The young man listened curiously as he tried to imagine what he was talking about. Then he realized.

He turned his head sharply as he looked across the prison at the woman's cell. He couldn't see much, but he knew she was sleeping. There were no cries, but he knew that another addition to the pit had been made over the night and it didn't involve them being propelled down the tunnel.

The child had been born.

The wonder inside of his abdomen was something he never felt before in his life. A child? An infant, for the matter. A life that didn't deserve this.

Then he saw it. Not necessarily the entire child, only the tiny hands as they reached up from the cradle made of blankets. That impossible size of the creature made Bane's insides churn.

The innocence had come.

* * *

The young offspring of the woman grew like a bear cub. Constantly curious and feisty. Bane had only seen the child once or twice, the blue eyes that child possessed were so full of life. The mother always kept a close watch of the child, keeping him near as she went out, guarded by the men. But the child would look around in a desperate attempt to keep himself entertained. He looked up at the tunnel, the escape and clapped his hands.

Bane tried persistently to turn his eyes away but he always fought the smile. The child was content, even in this place. The reason he was unsure of, but it wasn't needed.

* * *

It was hot that afternoon, the first time; the first time he had actually talked to the child. It wasn't intended. Honestly, the ignorance of the child could have gotten him killed. One evening, when the breeze was absent, the child had gotten away from his mother. He was a smart little thing. Keeping to the shadows, he didn't make himself noticed. But he was _hungry_.

The child walked in the corners of the Pit, searching for something anything.

Bane was only walking. He didn't notice the child until he heard the clap of the child's sandals on the sandy stone. Turning his head, he glimpsed the boy's body bended over and observing something on the floor in the far corner of the west wing. The child picked whatever it was he was looking at in his hands and observed it close to his face. Bane should have walked away.

But he didn't.

The tiny figure was twisting the object in his hands and Bane crept closer as he noticed that the _thing_ in the child's hands was a rat. He quickly shook his head.

"You shouldn't touch that, you will get diseases."

His voice startled the boy and he gasped as he backed up quickly against the wall. The child looked from side to side, trying to find a way to escape. He obviously wasn't counting on getting caught.

"Calm down, I do not wish to harm you." The soothing voice fell from his lips as he took a step back for good measure. The child looked at him with those dazzling blue eyes and swallowed.

The boy put his hands to his sides and narrowed his eyes. Bane almost laughed. He would have to prove himself? How could he do that?

"My mother tells me that everyone wants to harm me, except the doctor."

Bane's eyes shifted to the child. The voice was off. It wasn't at all what he was expecting. It was feminine. The child pulled the rags around _her_ neck down as _she_ stared back at the man. So it wasn't a boy, it was a girl. He guessed that made sense. The hair on her head was short and certainly convincing enough to lead them all to believe that she was a boy. But she never spoke to any of them.

The voice would spoil the façade.

He only believed that she was a boy, because...

Well the second that she opened her mouth she had no other reason to convince him otherwise. The child did not notice that she had given away her secret. She continued to stare at him.

"I will not hurt you."

The statement true enough that he didn't wish to take it back when he finished saying it. He had no desire to _hurt_ the child. That was absurd.

"Do not make promises you cannot keep." The girl brought her hands together as she looked at him under thick lashes. If she was afraid, she masked it well.

Bane frowned as he took the motive to sit down. The child kept her eyes on him as he sat comfortably on the floor. He gestured for her to sit as well but she only continued to stare at him as if he was insane.

That was okay, now they were level.

"Why did you leave your cell, child? Not everyone around here will restrain from causing you pain."

The child blinked. Before she could stop herself, she brought her hand up to her stomach and clenched her fist.

"You're hungry." Bane stated. The child frowned as she tried to focus on anything besides his face. Bane looked down at the rat. "Do not eat the meat the men from above throw down for you, they are counting on you taking the bait and you will only become ill."

The girl looked at the rat and tried to stop the hunger in her stomach. She had missed her meals because she had been naughty and her mother was teaching her a lesson. The child frowned, she didn't think it was fair. The morning would come in less than seven hours, but she didn't want to wait. She couldn't

She was _starving_.

Bane looked into the child's face and noted how pale she looked. He pursed his lips as she stared hungrily at the rat on the floor. Now that was pathetic.

"How about I do something for you, would you let me?" He asked. The child turned her eyes back to him and kept them still as she looked at his face. She wasn't sure how to respond. Bane nodded. "I will bring you some bread. You must be in your cell and under your covers. Is your mother asleep?" He asked.

The child looked hesitantly at him before she nodded.

"I will slip the bread in between the cell bars. Do not tell anyone that I gave you it because I will not share with everyone. Do you understand?"

The girl nodded, her eyes wide and wondering. Bane stood up. The girl backed up and kept her eyes on him as he turned his back on her. He was leaving then. It was a strange evening and he was going to take some bread from the supply, and if he was lucky some water as well. Then he would go back to his cell and move on with his life as if the encounter never happened.

"Goodbye, then." The child called out to him.

Bane turned to face her. She gave him a small smile. It was hard to believe that for most of their encounter she was scared of him. He smiled back at her. The child still so innocent.

"Never say goodbye." He breathed deeply. "That means you will never see me again and I believe you will."

The girl blinked before she turned around and snuck her way around the corners and back to her cell.

The bread came in no more than a half hour and by then she was fast asleep.

* * *

The first time he ever really held her in his arms was the night her mother died. The thought of it beforehand was affectionate, but now, all he could do was try to drown her sorrowful cries.

She knew.

She was old enough to understand what death was and how it worked. Her mother didn't even scream. She fought.

The child in his arms sobbed with the desperation and he wanted to make her stop. But he couldn't.

She was an orphan now. Nothing left to hold her up. Nothing except him.

* * *

"Do you see it? Do you see the bird?" Her excited tone caused him to turn his head.

"What?"

She smiled at him with glee. "There's a bird up there! It's on one of the stones. That large one way up at the top- Look see! There it is!" She stretched out her arm and sent her finger pointing at the ledge that the men tried to leap from to grasp the stone.

Bane turned his head up to stare at the stone tunnel. Indeed, there it was. A vulture perching on the ledge, looking down on them and flapping its wings.

"I want to see it! I want to climb up there."

Bane frowned. The child never talked about wanting to climb. He smiled down at her sadly and wrapped his arm around her shoulders as he pulled her away from the sunlight. She would learn with time that no one ever reached that point.

* * *

"You promised!"

Her whine was so childish. Couldn't she act at least a little more mature about this?

"Talia, no more, it's time for sleep."

The pout on her face deepened and she frowned. "But you said ten more minutes!" She wanted to play with him only a little longer, couldn't he oblige?

"I said _five_ more minutes"

Talia, her name so genuine and pure, was crawling then, under the covers and closer to the edge. She left enough space for Bane to slide in as well. He lied down next to her and shut his eyes.

"Tomorrow we can play longer, though, right?" Bane opened his eyes and looked at her closed ones. He knew. The men started to stare. They started to notice that the child was getting closer to Bane and that gave them a bargaining chip. They could do anything to her and they knew that it would break him. He needed to keep her close and that became exhausting. One wrong move and she could be gone forever.

She didn't open her eyes as she waited for his reply. She was close to him and stayed that way for a long time. He looked over her innocent face.

"We will have all the time in the world."

* * *

But they didn't. The days started to fly by at a startling rate. The difference from before was significant as he realized just how useful a companion was.

But the day came.

He had fought them off, kept them just at bay before he picked up the child and _ran_. The wall was so far away but they reached it soon enough.

She clung to him and he had to pry away her hands as he lifted her on the ledge. She looked at him with wide eyes filled with terror. She knew. He knew that she could tell.

"It's time to say goodbye, now." He was beginning to let go of her hand when she wailed.

"No! No goodbyes! That means I won't see you again!" She was starting to cry and Bane turned around and started to notice that the men were getting closer.

Bane felt the sorrow in his stomach. Indeed it did, and this time it was definitely the case. He would not see her again, she was going to have to at least try and escape. He looked at her face as he tried to control the ice in his veins.

"Climb." He ordered. "Now. Goodbye."

She shook her head violently as she refused to let him go but she wasn't strong enough to hold on tightly. He pulled himself away from her and turned to face the inmates who had reached him.

The small girl watched with desperation.

He looked up at her one last time and mutter the same word he had twice before. Goodbye. The final farewell. Then she turned and reached for the rocks.

No matter her sorrow, she would do this for him. He told her that if she ever got the chance that even though he warned her never to try, that she should escape. She would _have_ to try. She didn't know how she reached the ledge almost at the top, yet here she was. The exact place she had seen the vulture and then she looked at the other rock, the one that every man failed to catch.

The man below her was gone forever. Just like her mother. She was harbored with pain. She was built by it. The last thing holding her in place was the knowledge that she was loved. Her mother had loved her.

Bane had kept her safe.

That was what caused her to move her feet and jump just far enough to catch the stone before she pulled herself up.

She had finished what so many men had failed to complete. The turning in her gut was completely _violent_ as she didn't pause.

She would escape, just like he wanted. The valediction too painful to relive.


End file.
